It’s that time of year when Spring Break-ing families make annual sojourns to Central Florida attractions, and perhaps some local residents tag along.
The past 12 months have brought big changes to our theme park landscape, and if you’re going to brave the crowds, it’s best to have proper expectations to set priorities. This list is divided into new stuff, the not-quite-yet developments and no hopes for 2026. It’s better luck next year (or maybe the next year) in some cases.
New to do
• If you missed the Super Bowl spot and ensuing ad campaign, or the slew of media coverage, Universal Orlando added Epic Universe, the area’s first new theme park in a generation, last spring. That instantly introduced four new roller coasters, a monster-driven dark ride, a nowhere-else installment of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and the accompanying restaurants and themed entertainment options folks expect.
Epic has been busy but perhaps not as slammed as imagined due to its own daily capacity restrictions. Universal now has multiday tickets – starting at the three-day level – that allow “free travel” between Epic Universe and its other parks. That can be a workaround for rides with long queue histories.
As always, read the fine print for restrictions. Ticket prices vary with dates, but generally, the longer the stay, the lower the per-day cost. Yes, one should do math during Spring Break.
Beak and Barrel, a pirate-themed tavern, opened at Magic Kingdom’s Adventureland last summer. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)
• Walt Disney World introduced a couple of lounges, one for grown-ups and one that’s family-friendly. Epcot’s GEO 82 is adults-only, has a chichi but sometimes sweaty vibe, and offers a view of the World Showcase Lagoon from its perch inside the Spaceship Earth attraction. Magic Kingdom’s Beak and Barrel explores a pirate theme with a storyline, an animatronic bird named Rummy, a limited menu (but with octopus tentacles), both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages and a time limit of 45 minutes.
Advance reservations are required for both spots. If you’re foiled on that front, it doesn’t hurt to check again later, even on the desired date.
• Magic Kingdom is lit again, but that’s unrelated to Beak and Barrel. For the first time in several years, the park offers a nightly nighttime parade, “Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away.” The floats are fanciful and character-heavy, leaning into films such as “Moana,” “Encanto,” “Frozen” and “Pinocchio.” Nightly step-off is 8:30 p.m., but during peak season, there’s a 10:30 p.m. one scheduled on select nights, too. (My Disney Experience app tells all.)
• Two stage shows have debuted at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. “Disney Villains: Unfairly Ever After,” in a theater near Tower of Terror, features various baddies in competition and uses screens creatively. “The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure” sticks to Ariel’s familiar script and, unlike the previous “Mermaid” production, tosses in “Kiss the Girl,” too.
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• Disney’s Animal Kingdom is now home to “Zootopia: Better Zoogether,” a 3D show within a show within the park’s Tree of Life. It replaced “It’s Tough to Be a Bug,” reworking the theater and deleting that pesky back-poke effect.
• SeaWorld Orlando has opened its flying-theater attraction called Expedition Odyssey. It simulates movement over the Arctic. After landing, visitors can explore a real-life animal exhibit with beluga whales and walruses.
• For that new coaster smell, your best bet is Legoland Florida, which last month opened Galacticoaster, a space-themed, family thrill ride. It’s not terribly intense, but there’s a punchy launch early in the attraction. Also at the Winter Haven resort is the new Sea Life Florida Aquarium, a separately ticketed attraction.
• You won’t go hungry at Orlando’s theme parks with three major festivals, stocked with grazing options. Underway are Universal’s Mardi Gras celebrations at Universal Studios, the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival and, on select days, the Seven Seas Food Festival at SeaWorld Orlando.
• Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition, an attraction on International Drive, added a black-glass necklace found in the debris field of a famed ship to its displays, and later started offering a virtual-reality add-on experience where visitors sit and tour parts of the ocean liner.
Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center guests check out the Gantry at LC-39, which includes a test-fire simulation. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel)
• Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex bus tour added the Gantry at LC-39 to its stops. It includes an interactive rocket-design experience and has a test-fire simulation as its centerpiece.
• Madame Tussauds Orlando put in a few fresh star-powered wax figures, including Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez and Jeff Goldblum.
Not yet
• Icon Park has a handful of projects in the works. Blue Man Group will start performing a new show in a new theater near the base of the Orlando Eye as of May 1. Work is well underway on Ripley Crazy Golf, an indoor course, there and a multilevel Build-A-Bear store near the corner of I-Drive and Via Mercado.
• A suspended and submersible-themed ride called SEAQuest: Legends of the Deep is under construction at SeaWorld Orlando. The park says it will open in 2026.
• The renovated domed theater at Orlando Science Center is expected to open this summer.
• Magic Kingdom has a pair of under-renovation rides expected to return sometime this spring. Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin will return with enhanced ride vehicles, targets, sound effects and blasters, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad will come back after more than a year of shutdown.
• At Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets is slated for a summer debut. The Aerosmith version finished its nearly 27-year run this month.
Nope, not this year
• Multiple down-the-road Disney World projects have prompted the closure of some theme park staples.
Gone are Tom Sawyer Island, Rivers of America and the Liberty Belle boat from Magic Kingdom. An enormous construction wall separates visitors from the future site of two “Cars”-based attractions and a villains-centric land.
A guest takes photos in the backstage-themed pre-show area of MuppetVision 3D. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)
At Hollywood Studios, MuppetVision 3-D closed as part of the prep for a “Monsters, Inc.” land, and Star Wars Launch Bay did not survive the conversion of the area into a salute to animation (a short film, playground, drawing experience and meet-and-greets are in the works).
The Dinosaur ride was the last piece of Animal Kingdom’s Dinoland to go away. It’s being converted into an “Indiana Jones” attraction that will form the Tropical Americas land, along with “Encanto” elements.
• Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit roller coaster was dismantled at Universal Studios, and now work is underway in that general vicinity on a thrill ride called Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift. The new coaster is set to open next year. We can’t exactly say it’s last call for the Fast & Furious: Supercharged, the current attraction, but Universal Orlando does confirm it’s going away … eventually.
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